Shakespeare’s England was swarming with crime, murder, and severe punishments for those who did not comply with the laws. Crimes were tremendously common during the time while Shakespeare was alive. There were very few laws protecting England citizens at the time so crimes occurred very often. The Black Death, by Timothy Levi Biel, on page 17 discusses the three types levels of justice that would determine the punishments for wrongdoers. The first justice was the High Justice that was administered by the nobility. Noble lords tried people for murder, rape, armed robbery, and treason. Church officials administered the second justice, the Ecclesiastical Justice, and they tried people for crimes against the church, such as heresy and witchcraft. The last justice was the Civic Courts, which were held in city halls, where mayors and other city officials tried people for simple crimes. Simple crimes consisted of pickpockets or crooked card games with people called courtesy men who would persuade you to go with them into a bar and play cards with them. They would then trick you into loosing all of your money and whatever valuables you had on you. Other crimes that wouldn’t necessarily affect you unless you bumped into them were brawling, drunkards and vagrants. You also had a very good chance of running into highwaymen even on the nicest roads in the best places of town. The highwaymen would hide in the ditches along side the road and when traffic was slow they would spring out and hold up your carriage and take whatever you had.
In those days even very small crimes were taken very serious and for bigger crimes punishments were often cruel and undeserving. According to Gail B. Stewart, author of Life in Elizabethan London, punishments for simple crimes consisted of being carted, which was being tied to a horse facing back so that everybody could see the account of the crime, pillory, which was a wooden framework with holes to lock in your head and hands and then you were open for public abuse, all located on page 81 of his book. There was a similar form of pillory that was called stocks, which was the same concept but this held your feet in place. People were also branded with a red-hot iron with a meaningful letter to symbolize the crime, such as a “T” for theft or a “D” for drunkard. People often faced amputations, such as a finger or a hand. Most judges preferred to take an ear or something that would still allow the felon to do physical work after the punishment. For more serious offenses, like murder or treason, people could face the death penalty, in some cases even for the theft of a couple shillings. Liza Picard, in her book Elizabeth’s London on page 248, explains that a servant girl from the time who tried to poison the master of the household, she was pilloried twice, which was being locked into a wood frame with cutouts for hands and head, branded, and had both of her ears cut off.
There were several different methods for the executioner. Elizabethan-era.org has a page on their site called Elizabethan “Crime and Punishment”and it said one way people were killed was by being burned in the stake. Some executioners had mercy on victims and put gunpowder on the base of the stake, which helped the victims to a swifter, and less painful, death. Another way was to be beheaded by the executioner with his axe, which was not sharp, in two or three whacks that made the victim really feel the pain before their head was completely severed. Being hung by the neck and then taken down when half dead, and then the entrails cut off the body and burnt by the executioner was a favorite for the people on England. Being boiled was a new practice, started by Elizabeth’s father Henry VIII in the 1500s. The most famous method of death was the three-step method: being hanged, drawn, and then quartered. All of these punishments were carried out in public so that the felons were humiliated; also people enjoyed seeing other wrongdoers in agony and suffering. On page 79 of Gail B. Stewart’s book, Life in Elizabethan England, The Torture at the Tower of London was saved for the most serious of all crimes, treason. Treason consisted of plots against the throne. The Tower of London was a high security prison that was the site of unspeakable acts of torture on political prisoners. They were tortured with the rack, a horizontal frame where prisoner was places with ropes tied to their wrists and ankles. The ropes were then tied to wooden cylinders at the end of the frame and when turned they would pull the victims limbs from their joints. “The racks advantage was that the pain could be applied slowly so the victim could really feel the pain and know what was coming.”
Prisons and jails during the time were not like they are today. They were not meant for prisoners to stay for long periods of time. Punishments were meant to be quick and harsh. This was because they liked inflicting pain on wrongdoers and they didn’t have the space or money to keep people for long periods of time. There was one prisonm, called the Clink, that was a notorious debtors prison; a prison for people who owe large in prison the prisoners had to pay for their own meals and in this prison. People who had no money got an allowance from the money collected each week for the poor. This time was very rough on people because most of the punishments given for little minor crimes were unnecessary, cruel, and undeserving.
In those days even very small crimes were taken very serious and for bigger crimes punishments were often cruel and undeserving. According to Gail B. Stewart, author of Life in Elizabethan London, punishments for simple crimes consisted of being carted, which was being tied to a horse facing back so that everybody could see the account of the crime, pillory, which was a wooden framework with holes to lock in your head and hands and then you were open for public abuse, all located on page 81 of his book. There was a similar form of pillory that was called stocks, which was the same concept but this held your feet in place. People were also branded with a red-hot iron with a meaningful letter to symbolize the crime, such as a “T” for theft or a “D” for drunkard. People often faced amputations, such as a finger or a hand. Most judges preferred to take an ear or something that would still allow the felon to do physical work after the punishment. For more serious offenses, like murder or treason, people could face the death penalty, in some cases even for the theft of a couple shillings. Liza Picard, in her book Elizabeth’s London on page 248, explains that a servant girl from the time who tried to poison the master of the household, she was pilloried twice, which was being locked into a wood frame with cutouts for hands and head, branded, and had both of her ears cut off.
There were several different methods for the executioner. Elizabethan-era.org has a page on their site called Elizabethan “Crime and Punishment” and it said one way people were killed was by being burned in the stake. Some executioners had mercy on victims and put gunpowder on the base of the stake, which helped the victims to a swifter, and less painful, death. Another way was to be beheaded by the executioner with his axe, which was not sharp, in two or three whacks that made the victim really feel the pain before their head was completely severed. Being hung by the neck and then taken down when half dead, and then the entrails cut off the body and burnt by the executioner was a favorite for the people on England. Being boiled was a new practice, started by Elizabeth’s father Henry VIII in the 1500s. The most famous method of death was the three-step method: being hanged, drawn, and then quartered. All of these punishments were carried out in public so that the felons were humiliated; also people enjoyed seeing other wrongdoers in agony and suffering. On page 79 of Gail B. Stewart’s book, Life in Elizabethan England, The Torture at the Tower of London was saved for the most serious of all crimes, treason. Treason consisted of plots against the throne. The Tower of London was a high security prison that was the site of unspeakable acts of torture on political prisoners. They were tortured with the rack, a horizontal frame where prisoner was places with ropes tied to their wrists and ankles. The ropes were then tied to wooden cylinders at the end of the frame and when turned they would pull the victims limbs from their joints. “The racks advantage was that the pain could be applied slowly so the victim could really feel the pain and know what was coming.”
Prisons and jails during the time were not like they are today. They were not meant for prisoners to stay for long periods of time. Punishments were meant to be quick and harsh. This was because they liked inflicting pain on wrongdoers and they didn’t have the space or money to keep people for long periods of time. There was one prisonm, called the Clink, that was a notorious debtors prison; a prison for people who owe large in prison the prisoners had to pay for their own meals and in this prison. People who had no money got an allowance from the money collected each week for the poor. This time was very rough on people because most of the punishments given for little minor crimes were unnecessary, cruel, and undeserving.